PlayBook slowing down? Just wipe it

This same logic, can be applied on any personal computer you're using. Have you ever reformatted/re-installed your OS on a PC? It's like WOW THIS IS SO AMAZINGLY FAST, THIS IS SO COOL.

Use it for a couple weeks, install applications, ect. It's the same ol' computer. As others are saying, I don't see this as any long-term fix. It's a very, very temporary band aid:/.

I agree and disagree at the same time. I've cleared up issues on plenty of computers over the years and some needed reformatted and some could be saved. It's all in what you do with it. Like a computer, if you download everything and anything under the sun with no regard for what it might be doing to your system then yeah you are back to square 1. But if you are more mindful of what you put on your system then you will get a longer and happier life with it. It really goes for every device and every platform for the most part.

Of course, still a temporary solution, but still you can get more or less time out of a fresh start depending on what you do with it. I've seen computers last for 6 months and some for 8 years, depending on the user.

I actually read a post here where App world did not allow to re-install due to price change. Are we sure on this?

Huh? I haven't had that problem. Now I've had the issue were I tried to download a app that I got for free from a offer like that game "modern combat 2" and when I tried to re download it it said the price had changed and I had to purchase it. Now with apps that I bought with my own money, I was able to Re-download them without a problem.

I am facing this same issue for past one week, suddenly it has gone all laggy and slow in every damn operation. I have one question before I go for wipe though;

Lets say I bought an App for 3$, and now its 5$. So If I wipe it; does App World allow to re-install the application? Any idea.

It will depend on how the Developer has setup the upgrade/pricing. You may have to pay the upgrade fee. But if you can backup using the Desktop software and then restore, you'd not face that issue. The main problem is some folks can't get the Backup to work and that you canNOT backup/restore INDIVIDUAL apps - all or none!

Agreed... Just wipe the book, then it will be brand new again, where all cookies, unnecessary pre-install before was gone.
Dont forget also to wipe the bb handheld... To refresh it too..
Trust me... It will be good to go...
Smooth n snappy....

That is what I thought, it should at least allow to download the same version; I purchased. Thanks

That is a complaint that has been raised - you should be able to always reinstall a version you have already paid for but so far appworld does not allow that (too complex for a company like rim to accommodate???)

Thanks for this. I had bought my wife a Nexus 7 recently and I have to admit that, compared to my Playbook, it was pretty snappy with input response. My Playbook was lagging badly and I thought it was just the tablet showing its age. I bit the bullet tonight and did a wipe and the difference is night and day. So happy I did it. My only regret is that the stock wallpapers (which I liked a lot) are gone. Oh well.

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I am curious. What is causing this slowdown? Is it cumulative storage of data that is slowing down the PB? Does "wipe" really wipe away all stored data?

I am curious. What is causing this slowdown? Is it cumulative storage of data that is slowing down the PB? Does "wipe" really wipe away all stored data?

Yes.
Wipe really wipes away all stored data. You can check the "before" and "after" storage capacity.
It's the same as your blackberry device. When you want to sell it, you wipe it. So there's no left over of your personal data inside the device.

except the counter for data/voice usage in the blackberry. it doesn't reset to zero after a wipe

The only problem is the 3 main apps I use on a daily basis (other than the browser) are Android apps lol. If it is an Android VM issue, I am in trouble.

i have not been able to sideload the main apps I use and get them to run after my security wipe. I am not currently wiping the pb again and not updating the os. I will try to sideload a few apps and see if they will start working again. I have updated my ddpb installer from e-reader and will review all the apps to make sure I have the latest version too. If they work, I will upgrade the software. If not, I guess I will be without Kindle and Twitter apps!

Well I had a big problem yesterday and wednesday night. My pb won't run the browser or native messages all of a sudden. Besides that when I try restarting it, it gets stuck and loops on the PB slpash screen. So I backed it up and wiped it. It got stuck for 2 hours on the loop but I did another hard restart and it worked. Browser and all. So I restored it and it doesn't work anymore. So it must be an app that isn't letting it work. All I need is my music backed up, and a few documents. I don't mind losing my book marks and so on. Can I just back up my media and docs via DTM? Or is there a way to access it as a hard drive because everytime I try it windows tells me some bs about how I can't. Anyone else have this problem?

So I just wiped my 16GB PB for the very first time. I've been using it for about a year and this is enough time to collect some rubbish (especially after trying and uninstalling apps). I haven't bothered with DM - just copied everything to my PC over WiFi. Took a while to backup and copy back to PB but worked fine. Application data was lost obviously but I didn't really have anything important there. There were no issues with discounted apps but I haven't tried apps mentioned in this thread. And speaking of apps, I took screenshots of home screen and installed apps list from App World to know what was there and where it was. In terms of default wallpapers, there was another thread mentioned here with default wallpaper downloads. Keep in mind, as it says in that thread, these are just screenshots in 1024x600 resolution so they will not look like the original ones.

I can see some performance improvement but the main reason I did the wipe was to check if I could gain some disk space. After restoring everything as it was (apps+data) it looks like I have saved some 500+ MB. Not bad. I am not a fan of wiping or reinstalling OS frequently - my PC's run well for years. A matter of good housekeeping ;-) In this case it looks however that after using PB for a year and installing/uninstalling many apps it is worth doing it.

Nice post. I am quite reluctant since the restoration of the 64gig is really a major time commitment. Most of the stuff already exists on my pc but still, getting it back on the pb is a TASK. All of those apps, wifi static addressing settings, tons of music and pictures and videos. And as I recall from when I did this to my 32gig when I was sorting out discharge values, the copying back was not as simple as drag/drop. For some reason, not all of my music when back and some videos did not work when restored initially but then INDIVIDUAL restorations of such items did work - it was if the files were not fully put back on the pb although they showed the full file sizes. That happened with about 1/2 dozen videos. With the mp3, I found only partial restoration of items in my folders - some tracks were not copied back. Sorting that out took quite a bit of manual searching/comparing and recopying.

Just in case anyone asked - I have never sideloaded any apps. Also I had no videos or music stored on my PB. Just books, books, books and photos. Approx 4,5 GB of them. Before wiping, I've copied whole "media" folder to my PC and then copied back to PB folder by folder. In order to avoid any complications, I have launched all apps that create their own folders (e.g. scrapbook, dosbox) before copying related files. Then I copied files to the folders created. So far everything works fine...

My PB is new and I don't intend to wipe it any time soon but just so I know, how are you guys wiping it..? I'm on a Mac. Is it just a case of connecting it, treating it like a hard drive and deleting the root folders?

You go to Options on your PB ->Security -> Security Wipe. Make sure you backed up everything you need BEFORE wiping and keep your PB connected to a charger and network as it will go through initial setup and download OS updates.

By the way I am wondering if it overwrites all data so it can't be undeleted. That's what I would consider a "Security Wipe"...